Once Upon A Time
by Nellynee
Summary: Prompted by a picture by the same name for a contest. A bit of fluff under a tree by a lake. Shadow is being suborn and grumpy. That's about it people.


**Done for a picture promt contest on Deviantart. Here's the pic it's prompted from.  
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**http : / browse . deviantart . com /?qh=§ion=&q=sonadow+once+upon+a+time#/d4ay88k**

**My first try at Sonic the Hedgehog, so I hope I did it justice. Wish me luck people, I'm gonna need it.**

This was stupid.

There was no way Shadow was getting into that lake. Sonic could coo and cajole all he liked, Shadow was not getting in.

Somehow Sonic had talked him into a race, though Shadow couldn't remember for the life of him how. Hours latter, they were still at it, legs pounding in the steaming sunlight. Shadow's mood, cocky and energized at the start, soured quickly when he had to be the first to call off, stumbling to the sand with his stomach in his throat, begging relief.

Sonic had jogged back to him panting in the heat, before pressing his finger to his lips in an enigmatic smile and claiming to know "this totally cool place".

It made a pretty picture, Shadow would admit that. They were shaded from the summer sun by a giant willow tree, so old that her boughs hung heavy toward the ground and left them in cool, sun spotted darkness. Water lapped up from under the leaves, crystal clear and so inviting. Years of its movement had washed dirt from beneath the tree, and her roots rose, giant and swollen, dipping back in to the sand.

Sonic sat on one particularly large root, well out of the water, shoes shed and feet dipping into the clear wetness. Shadow was at least gratified to see that Sonic looked as tired as he felt. Dried sweat clumped particularly long bunches of fur, and leg muscles visibly twitched as Sonic fanned his still sweating and flushed face.

His mood soured again when he realized that he probably looked just as bad.

"Come on Shadow, it's so nice and cool. You'll feel better in no time!"

Swaying lightly in to avoid the ache in his feet, he actually thought about getting in for a moment. His sweat soaked socks were stifling, muscles twitching as his lack of moment after such exercise left them hard and lethargic. The creases of his body were slick with sweat and the top of his head still burned where his dark fur had trapped the heat.

But he knew exactly what lay in those waters. His studies of earth had tilted towards avenues that would have helped him care for and protect Maria in her life on the planet. It would serve Sonic right if some horrible germ or parasite dug its way into his body just because he was too stupid to stay out of untreated water. Just because they wouldn't affect Shadow didn't make them any less disgusting.

Shadow smirked at where the water lapped at Sonic's ankles. Tiny feral fish, now used to the swaying movements, peeked from the shadows to dart around Sonic's feet.

"I thought you were afraid of the water Sonic?"

Sonic's eyes widened, shocked that Shadow would even be privy to that embarrassing tidbit. Memories came unbidden to the front of his mind, trapped deep in a labyrinth of metal and wire, water rushing in from all sides, forcing him under, swimming through tight closed tunnels, trying desperately to find a way out and _he couldn't breathe_.

A tight shudder wracked his body as he forced the first years as a soldier down and, though the motion was tight and tense, extended an inviting hand out to the ebony hedgehog.

"Now it's not as bad as that Shadow, nothing to be afraid of. If you're that nervous, I'll even hold your hand."

Shadow's smirk turned to a sneer, ready to cut Sonic to the quick with some scathing remark and flee, but the tenseness in Sonic's stance gave him pause, and he regretted ruining the serene look Sonic had held just a moment before hand. Sighing, he toed off his sneakers, peeling away dark, damp socks and throwing them in the bushes where he didn't have to smell them. Ignoring Sonic's hand, he eased around the other side and sat back to back to the azure hedgehog.

The smooth stones eased the ache in his feet and the cold water eased the nausea in his stomach. With several long breaths, he forced his muscles to relax as best he could, leaning back into flattened quills when he felt Sonic do the same. Resting an elbow on his knee he wriggled his toes into silty soft soil and tried not to concentrate on the sweaty heat radiating form his comrade.

Felt good.

When Sonic's breath hitched into giggles at the fishes nibbling at his toes, and when he rested one hand on Shadow's (through accident or design he neither knew nor cared) Shadow didn't move his out from underneath, but rather twisted a bit so that he could grasp the tip of Sonic's pinky between his fingertips and keep him there.

Felt really good.


End file.
